The Year In Numbers

As the year ends I thought it would be fun (at least for me) to look as some numbers for the past year.

The Blog

WordPress kicked off this idea by sending the annual report. I had over a quarter million views and about 80,000 visitors. Thanks to you all and I hope you found the site informative and useful. Both visitors and views are considerably higher than 2014 but views per visitor stayed at 3.21 year-over-year.

This will be my 177th post of the year. It’s 10 more than last year and more than I would have guessed, especially when I think of it as nearly one post every other day.

A thanks to my top referrers:

1. The Pen Addict
2. The Well-Appointed Desk
3. Pennaquod.net

Also in the top five were Twitter and a Tumblr I run called Fountain Pen Links which is just firehose of pen related links, some of which end up in my Sunday Notes and Links.

The Pens

I added 11 fountain pens to my accumulation in 2015 and I have one more (Edison Pens group buy) paid for and due in early 2016. This continues the downward trend from last year. I never want to actually do the math to total up how much I spent, but while the number of new pens was lower this year I have to believe this year had the highest average cost per pen.

I sold or gave away 15 pens so there was a net decline in my accumulation.

I cleaned out a fountain pen 59 times during the year and have 13 inked up as I enter 2011. Most pens were cleaned after being written dry although a couple went early due to problems or extended non-use. Some fountain pens got multiple fills before being cleaned.

The Inks

I did not do a good job of keeping track of my inks. There are 156 in my spreadsheet but I suspect a few are missing.

I managed to use two bottles of ink enough to empty them – Montblanc Bordeaux (I still have more) and Montblanc Corn Poppy Red. (Yes, I like Montblanc ink.) The Bordeaux was opened last year while the Corn Poppy Red lost some to evaporation as it spent a year in an inkwell.

Number of Montblanc Bordeaux bottles that are still unopened (the most important number of all): 3

The Notebooks

This is the first year in recent memory that I used a notebook or planner for an entire year. I just wrote about that book – the Hobonichi Planner.

Doane Paper is still my most used paper brand. I filled three Large Jotters this year. Mainly work related and other notes taken while working at my desk. I also went through uncountable large writing tablets.

My pocket-sized notebook usage is way down this year. I don’t recall finishing off any of them although I have several in various stages of use.

Happy New Year

I wish you all the best for 2016. It has potential since there’s an extra day which means more fountain pen usage.